Ruta de Las Flores is without doubt the ‘ace card’ of Salvadoran tourism. It’s a 36km-long winding trip through brightly coloured colonial towns famed for lazy weekends of gastronomy and gallery hopping, as well as more adventurous pursuits like mountain biking, horseback riding and hiking to hidden waterfalls scattered throughout the glorious Cordillera Apaneca. Home to the country’s first coffee plantations, some of its finest indigenous artisans and a world famous weekly food festival, I got the distinct impression that the ‘Flower Route’ anticipates El Salvador’s return to the traveler’s map.
Bus 249 runs frequently between Sonsonate (in the south) and Ahuachapán (in the north), stopping in all the towns along the way, including Juayúa, Apaneca and Ataco.
Ataco: With a small indigenous presence, and many locals involved in the town’s thriving textile trade, pastel-coloured Ataco is set for bigger crowds. Despite the huge number of sleeping and dining options, the town seems committed to keeping its colonial charms intact – just my kind of place. I decided to use Ataco as a base – it seemed to be more intimate and more friendly than Juayúa – and stayed in a delightful hotel called Villa Santo Domingo. It was here that I met and teamed up with Fred, a retired teacher from the Netherlands who’s been travelling for 12-months or so.
Juayúa: ‘Why-ooh-ah’ is famed for its weekend food fair where crowds from across the country sample the region’s best cuisine and dance to live music on the plaza. Barbecued iguana, guinea pig and frog skewers headline an ambitious menu!
Ideal for wandering, Juayúa is small and its streets follow a standard grid. There is a beautiful church on the west side of the plaza and behind it is a lovely little market. Fred and I enjoyed the highly recommended hike to Los Chorros de Calera, a series of falls spewing from fractured cliffs to form large, cold pools. Having worked up a good appetite we then enjoyed some of the excellent local cuisine in Juayúa.
Next stage: San Miguel and the border crossing into Nicaragua..
